are most to blame for the violent instead of a peaceful solution of the matter.

His death by the hand of an assassin in a theatre at Washington, April 14, 1865, was heard of with emotions of horror by the entire country. At the North he was immediately regarded as a martyr; at the South, having just surrendered, it was feared the event would make the terms of peace more difficult. At first it was supposed the crime was prompted by the Confederate authorities, but nothing has ever been discovered to justify such an idea. It was doubtless the result of the same individual frenzy which impelled the attempt on the lives of Presidents Jackson and Garfield, and which is frcquently manifested in attempts on the lives of European monarchs.

As a self-made man, like Clay, Jackson, Douglas and others of our distinguished countrymen, Mr. Lincoln deserves great credit. It is one of the grand features of the Democratic institutions of the country, that the course is open to the poor as well as the rich, and that a fair field is offered to every one alike. Accounts of Lincoln's life and services have been published by several authors, and his speeches and writings are seen to be distinguished by a vein of wit and hard sense which almost always went straight to the point.

CHAPTER XII.

STEPHEN ARNOLD DOUGLAS.

Birth and Early Life-Goes West-Studies Law-Elected Judge and United States Senator-Squatter Sovereignty-Candidate for the Presidency-Supports the War for the Union-Personal Appearance -Marriage-Death and Monument.

THE prominent Democratic statesman whose name heads this chapter was born in Brandon, Vermont, April 23, 1813. His father, a physician, died when he was but two months old, when his mother moved to a farm, on which young Stephen worked until he was fifteen years of age. He then determined to learn the cabinet-making trade, but his health not permitting, he attended the village school a short time. His family at this time removed to Canandaigua, New York, where he attended the academy and studied law. Acting on Horace Greeley's later maxim, he went West in 1833, and turned up in Winchester, Illinois, with thirty-seven and a half cents in his pockets. He immediately found a situation as school teacher, devoting his evenings to the study of the law, and on Saturdays pettifogging in small cases.

In March, 1834, having been admitted to the bar, he opened an office and commenced practice in the higher courts. He soon received a

large share of practice, and his reputation was such that at the age of twenty-two he was elected Attorney General of the State, which he resigned on being elected to the Legislature in 1835. Appointed in 1837 Register of the Land Office by President Van Buren, he also stood to represent his district in Congress, but was defeated by five votes. In 1840 he was appointed Secretary of State, and the next year was elected a Judge of the Supreme Court; again to be advanced to the United States Senate in 1847, then thirty-four years of age-a rapid advancement through the many offices he had held, which testifies to his great abilities.

In the Senate he was known as an active business member, and very successful in promoting the interests of his State. The Illinois Central Railroad owes to his efforts the charter which has made it so great a success.

He is principally known as the advocate of the popular sovereignty idea, as it was embraced in the celebrated Kansas-Nebraska Act, which he explained thus:

"These measures are predicated upon the great fundamental principle that every people ought to possess the right of framing and regulating their own internal affairs and domestic institutions in their own way. These things are all confided by the Constitution to each State to decide for itself, and I know of no reason why the same principle should not be extended to the territories."

The passage of this act virtually repealed the Missouri Compromise, as it has been popularly called, of 1820, which prohibited the existence of slavery north of 36° 30′ north latitude, and gave rise to much angry feeling throughout the country-the Northern Radicals viewing it as permitting slavery where it had hitherto been prohibited by law; and the Southern party claiming the right to take their slaves into the territories, as allowed, they asserted, by the Constitution, whether a majority of the inhabitants favored it or not. This measure was criticised by Mr. Lincoln as claiming the right of an emigrant to govern himself, and also to govern his neighbor (i. e., his slave), which he said was a falacy, the bill not justifying such a conclusion. Apart from the subject of slavery, no one has ever for an instant contended for ay other rule for the government of the territories.

In 1852 Mr. Douglas was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency, and again unsuccessfully in 1856. In 1859 he canvassed the State of Illinois against Abraham Lincoln, and was elected to the United States Senate by a small majority. In 1860 he rcceived the regular Democratic nomination for President, the Southern States having mostly withdrawn from the convention, and put up a Southern candidate, Mr. Breckenridge. This action, it is believed, was taken for the express

purpose of dividing the Democratic party, and thereby insuring the election of the Republican candidate by the Southern leaders-in this event giving them the pretext of secession which they sought. It has been shown elsewhere in this work, that if this great folly had not been committed and the Southern vote had been given to the regular candidate, Mr. Douglas, he would have been elected.

In the debates in the Senate at the beginning of the war, he took a strong stand in favor of the government and the Union, and in his speeches, after the adjournment of Congress, he denounced secession as madness and a crime. In a letter in May, 1861, he declared that but one course was left for all honorable men, and that was to sustain the Constitution, the Union and the government against all assailants.

On his death-bed, June 3, 1861, his last words were a wish for the success of his country, and the defeat of her enemies. And yet Radicals have still the audacity to claim that the Democratic party, of which he was the leader at the time, were in favor of the secession of the South.

Mr. Douglas was below the medium size in stature, yet of a strongly built frame and great powers of endurance, from which facts, and his readiness in debate, he was familiarly known as the "Little Giant." No one of our public men exercised a greater influence over the